The Library of a 'Humanist Prince' Federico da Montefeltro and His Manuscripts [by M.G. Critelli]

Bartolomeo della Gatta

1448-1502

Bartolomeo della Gatta was a painter, illuminator, architect, and Camaldolese monk at San Benedetto fuori Porta a Pinti in Florence. Later he moved to Santa Maria in Gradi, Arezzo, where he was to develop an interesting ecclesiastical career. The dating of several works of his monumental art serves in reconstructing the history of his art, a history that includes (among other significant instances) his work in the Sistine Chapel beside Luca Signorelli for the fresco of the Last Days of Moses. The panorama of his miniature work is different, the catalog of which has been compiled almost exclusively through stylistic comparisons (Martelli, Bartolomeo della Gatta, pp. 235-306, 334-343). He built his artistic language on the particular eloquence of the Florentine workshops of Pollaiolo and Verrocchio, and was influenced by the clear geometric construction of Piero della Francesca. His introduction to the milieu of Urbino was likely possible thanks to Gentile de’ Becchi of Urbino, bishop of Arezzo and a friend of his. In fact, the Vitr. 22-1 di Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, which contains the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta and the Triumphi of Petrarch, is also attributed to him. Likely he collaborated with Maestro del Senofonte Hamilton, for this work, which was copied by Matteo Contugi for Federico da Montefeltro and datable between 1474 and 1476. He also contributed to the Urb. lat. 427, as the Alessandro Magno in the incipit page. It is clear, moreover, that he was familiar with the antiquarian designs of the Paduan-Roman area, represented by such artists as Bartolomeo Sanvito and Gaspare da Padova. This expressive style can also be seen in the incipit of the Vat. lat. 1848 of the Vatican Library, which conveys the Decas III of Livy’s Ab Urbe condita di Livio, made for the protonotary apostolic, Ludovico Agnelli.

BENTIVOGLIO-RAVASIO, Piero (Pietro) di Antonio Dei, pp. 861-865; MARTELLI, Bartolomeo della Gatta, passim.

General Bibliography

Urb. lat. 427, f. 2r - Vat. lat. 1848, f. 1r 

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